Teaching in 1841: a Waterford Waldron's school book

This book in the museum’s collection is titled, “The American Preceptor; Being A New Selection Of Lessons For Reading And Speaking Designed For The Use Of Schools”. This edition was printed in 1813 and used by an early Waterfordian, Cornelius Waldron. 

This book, besides being an educational tool, was also clearly used as an art canvass for Cornelius. The words in the caption bubble of this doodle haven’t been deciphered yet, but this little dude doodle shows up on another page too.

View looking north on 3rd St. from Waldron Store on corner
of 3rd & Broad St. Photo taken prior to 1913 flood that destroyed 
the old Presbyterian Church. Local newspapers note the law 
business of A.C. Waldron and that of  Wm. Waldron,
as well as a market by R.C Waldron listed sometimes
as "Union Market"

There was a C. A. Waldron who lived at 22 Third Street. He had a noteworthy legal career, working with Congressman David L. Seymour in 1851, elected Justice of the Peace in 1853, elected Justice of Sessions of the country in 1853, and elected Surrogate of Saratoga County from 1855 until 1877.

In his obituary, a section was dedicated to highlighting that only one of his many thousands of orders was ever reversed. He was heavily involved in the community, being a member of: Waterford Chapter, Apollo Commandery of Troy, Clinton Masonic Lodge, “the Shrine”, the Masonic Veterans’ Association of Troy, Saratoga Lodge of Elks, the Holland Society, the Waterford Country Club, Post Sheriden (associate member), Saratoga County Bar Association (Vice President), and was a Trustee of the Presbyterian Church of Waterford.

But there appears to also be a Cornelius L. Waldron, according to the obituary of Robert C. Waldron. He’s listed as Robert’s brother and the ex-Surrogate, which was also attributed to Cornelius A. Waldron. So….without being able to trace a family tree for Waterford Waldrons, this may be a typo or maybe Cornelius was a common name for the Waldron family and practicing law was part of family tradition???

This photograph is recorded as that of "C.A. Waldron" in the museum's collection.

What is known about Cornelius Waldron is that he was born July 23, 1829 in Lansingburgh and lived in Waterford on Broad Street until his death in 1912. He studied at the “old Waterford Academy”, which is where he most likely used this book. Included with his name in this book is the date 1841.  Cornelius would have been 12 years old at this time, making use of this book as well as any other 12 year-old student. 

The American Preceptor was widely used for teaching, with 600,000 copies sold. First printed in 1794, it went through fifty-five editions by 1818. It is thought that it remained a staple teaching tool until at least 1837 – longer for some places, like Waterford. This book is a collection of speeches, excerpts from plays, poetry and other short texts. These excerpts were selected not just for teaching purposes, but also to convey a sense of religious or moral piety and patriotism. In its preface, the author, Caleb Bingham writes, “In making selections for the following work, a preference has been given to the productions of American genius.”

He continues with how he envisioned students like Cornelius Waldron to be taught with this book by explaining, “For the conveniency of large classes, the several pieces are divided into paragraphs of a moderate length; the utility of which, those conversant in the instruction of youth will readily discover. Instructors are assured that the inconveniency arising from the frequent alterations in the different editions of schoolbooks will never be experienced in this.” 

Notably not included? The author made sure to include in his remarks the necessity of not “instilling false notions in the minds of children” and so “Tales of love have not gained admission”.

Artifact Spotlight: The Doty Vacuum c.1900

Following the trend from last week’s artifact – and considering some of us are still waiting to get to Phase 1 of reopening in New York State, like us – this spotlight is on another household item: the vacuum.

While our feline friends and canine companions may not consider these items anything other than a nuisance, vacuums have developed into a commonplace item. The Roomba has gifted us with many amusing cat videos at least.

The history of the vacuum is tied with the development of the broom - as brooms became sturdier and therefore more effective cleaning tools, inventors in the late 1700s and early 1800s produced types of mechanical sweepers for streets, floors and carpets.

These manual systems of pulleys and cranks to rotate the brush and push dirt into a receptacle. The next step was the creation of vacuum cleaners with bellows. The first design of what we would recognize as a vacuum cleaner is the 1860 design by Daniel Hess, which incorporated a manually-operated bellows to create suction and raw in dirt.

This is an example of one such bellows-operated vacuum, created by the Ohio—based company, The Doty Manufacturing Company. This model was used in the early 1900s, ranging from c.1900 –1912.   The wheels powered a crankshaft as it was moved along the carpet/floor, which pushed rods connected to one or 2 bellows to produce continuous suction.

However, by 1913, manual devices were less popular thanks to the more efficient electric models that became available. For more rural areas that took longer to undergo electrification (into the 1930s), “The Doty” and similar models were lightweight and used into the 1940s.

Impact of COVID-19 on WHMCC

You Can Support The Museum!

Please consider making a monetary donation by following this link HERE to donate through PayPal - you don't need an account to donate this way, you can also use a debit or credit card. you can also keep us in mind when purchasing from Amazon. Use Amazon Smile and select as the nonprofit the Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Centre so that a percentage of your total is matched by Amazon and donated to the museum. Checks - as "outdated" as some may find them - are still good too. Or consider donating supplies to becoming a volunteer. Becoming involved is a great way to support the museum!

Our map-centered exhibit planned for this year, “Waterford: A Changing Landscape”, will be postponed and the museum hopes to offer this and our other exhibit spaces to the public when New York State begins phased openings of museum institutions. Museums are part of NY Forward Phase 4, tentatively set for June 26.

The museum is considering all potential plans to open and maintain the guidelines being outlined to ensure continued observance of health and safety measures the State and the CDC have outlined for all places open to the public.

We have also had to cancel our Canalways educational program for 4^th graders that is held at Lock 2, the Champlain Canal Trail, and the Hurst Visitors Center that had been scheduled for June of this year. We are sad to not be able to engage with students this year in hands-on learning experiences. Canalways is currently the only program the museum has been able to offer to students due to limited staff, volunteers, and funds.

This program is only possible thanks to the amazing collaboration with our partners, the NYS Canal Corporation, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, the Waterford Canal and Towpath Society, and the Town of Waterford and the volunteers from each partner that ensure content and guides can be offered to students. This crisis has shown that the museum needs to also consider potential alternatives to the usual large group field-trips of the past. One of the museum’s goals moving forward will to be determine the feasibility of additional programs to offer to students. While educational in value to students, this program also serves as a major fundraiser for the museum, just like special events hosted by the museum like Trivia Night - the most recent event that we unfortunately had to cancel. The museum relies on private funds and volunteer support to continue to meet its mission of preserving and sharing Waterford’s heritage and past.

Small museums like us across the country have struggled with having to remain temporarily closed and cancel programs and events that are relied upon to maintain their operating budget. Overnight, museums lost 2/3 of their income when shutdown occurred. While museums are “closed” to the public, we have been more active than ever before in addressing changes in offering educational programs, exhibits, and events to the public.

Artifact Spotlight

Soap shaker aka soap cage used to hold a bar or flakes of soap in the collection
 of the Waterford Historical Museum & Cultural Center

Some task that have continued to be a necessity during quarantine are washing the dishes and doing the laundry.  Or, at least, for those with some sense of normalcy that can keep up with the laundry. Be honest - you know of at least one person who is okay with going the day sans pants. 

Today’s laundry machines have the option of using pods or liquid detergent to clean your clothes and, if you’re splurging, make your fabrics soft and cozy. But those detergents weren’t used until Procter & Gamble introduced the first in 1933. Called “Dreft”, it could only handle lightly soiled jobs. Eventually Tide was created in 1943, introduced in October 1946 as the world’s first heavy-duty detergent. Prior to these detergents, plain old soap was used to clean grease and dirt as best as possible. 

Soap shakers, also known as soap cages, were commonly used from the 1920s and into the 1980s. Lye soap was the go-to soap for a long time when cleaning clothes. This was rough on the hands and eventually a tallow-based soap became popular. Flakes of soap could be added to the cage to make the most from every scrap. This was used in tubs and washing machines. 

1920s washing machine

But these soap flakes had a couple downsides:  It performed poorly in hard water, leaving a ring in the washing machines, and often dulled colors and tuned whites gray. 

Devices like this metal soap cage were used in laundry, but also for washing dishes. This small device was donated to the Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center by Mrs. Egbert Mayell.

Throwback 2019-2020 Lecture Series - The Final Part!

Our last lecture of the 2019-2020 season was held on March 10^th, very close to the shutdown of everything in the state and country. It was still a wonderful show of support from our members, who enjoyed a great presentation by Saratoga National Park Ranger, Eric Schnitzer on portraying Catherine Schuyler. 

Using this painting of General Philip Schuyler’s wife, he explored how art pieces were produced in this era. Painted by travelling artist Thomas McIlworth (fl. 1757-1768) in ca. 1765, it has elements that are noticeably familiar looking to other portraits of this time. Some myths have developed about the nature of travelling artists of this time that might misled interpreting how this portrait’s familiar traits would’ve showed up. Was it because these artists would have model bodies already drawn that they would then draw their patron’s heads on so as to make these pieces as quickly as possible? 

Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site

Artists would start with the face and then flesh out the body of their patron. There aren’t many examples of the process of making these sorts of artworks – supplies are also money and artists reused what they could whenever they could, and personal techniques weren’t always meticulously written down. 

But, the few examples that have been preserved, drawing the face was the first step. There are instances of artworks that show disproportioned figures, which could easily give the impression that this myth was true when looking at figures with either too large or too small heads. 

Aside from the artist having a bad day, often their patrons had specific features they wanted to highlight that would cause the artists to get creative with what progress they had been making on their painting. 

An example used in this presentation is the portrait of Colonel John Cox (1778) that was painted by Charles Wilson Peale, which portrays a bit of a bobble-head-like appearance that is likely due to the Colonel’s desire to include his shoulders and therefore the uniform feature that highlighted his military rank. 

It was important to keep the customer happy for obvious reasons, but also because many artists were commissioned for a variety of projects and would make house calls rather than the concept of a studio – it’s unknown if McIlworth would have had a card to advertise or ever took out an ad in a local newspaper, but word of mouth definitely was something he and many others utilized. 

But if these similarities weren’t the product of pre-made portraits just waiting for a face, why were there so many similar features? It’s not as complicated as you may think – you need only look at the latest trend of TikTok dances.

Many well-off patrons who could afford to have a private portrait like the Schuylers that wanted to highlight their best features also want to emulate those trend-setters with many other women seen in a similar style dress and pose. Those business cards often had prints of certain portraits to promote the style as something they could recreate with their patron as their focus. 

These body templates were then customized. Catherine Schuyler was influenced by the portrait of Lady Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton that was created in 1751 by James McArdell. You can very clearly see the similarities in pose, the style of dress, and the obvious imitation of the flower arrangement worn by both women in their portraits.

But there is one feature that stands out from all the other women in this pose and similar-style dress – apparently she had strabismus, also known as lazy eye or wall eye. 

It’s not sure if this was an instance of how the artist drew eyes (there are a few other portraits) or if this was true to her appearance. Either way, this portrait would have had a place of prominence and serves as a way to preserve history.

Many small museums are suffering from the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown and WHMCC is no different with the postponement of our exhibit spaces and the cancellation of much-needed and relied upon fundraising programs and special events. We would love to invite you to consider supporting the museum or take part in the many volunteer opportunities at the museum - WHMCC is not tax-funded or guaranteed funds from any municipality and is run primarily by a volunteer board and its one part-time staff. 

Any help is always appreciated, like attended these fun programs and events. While we don't know when exactly we'll be able to get back to "normal" and offer exhibits and events during the 2020 summer season, the museum hopes to see everyone again soon!